SkyWater Launches Quantum Business Unit - Semiecosystem

SkyWater Launches Quantum Business Unit It will offer a range of services for foundry customers in the quantum fieldSemiecosystemSep 09, 20261ShareBy Mark LaPedus SkyWater Technology has launched SkyWater Quantum Solutions, a unit that will offer a range of services for foundry customers in the quantum field.SkyWater also announced a development program with Qolab, the superconducting quantum-computing company co-founded by John Martinis, a 2025 Nobel laureate in physics.Based in Bloomington, Minn., SkyWater is a foundry vendor. Foundry vendors manufacture chips for other companies in large facilities called fabs.SkyWater made headlines in January 2026, when the company was acquired by IonQ, a U.S.-based quantum computer company. Under the terms, SkyWater will operate as a subsidiary of IonQ. SkyWater, which will retain its name, will continue to serve customers as a foundry vendor.Prior to the acquisition, SkyWater developed an expertise in the quantum computing arena. It makes quantum devices for several companies, including IonQ, D-Wave, PsiQuantum, QuamCore, Silicon Quantum Computing and others.SubscribeNew quantum business unitGoing forward, SkyWater’s new unit, SkyWater Quantum Solutions, will continue to support IonQ as a customer and technology collaborator. The unit will simultaneously continue to serve other foundry customers besides IonQ.Mihir Bhaskar will lead SkyWater Quantum Solutions as senior vice president and general manager. Prior to this role, Bhaskar was senior vice president of R&D at IonQ.This new business unit will provide process development, device integration, characterization and manufacturing support for foundry customers in the quantum arena. This includes quantum-based computing, networking and sensing.SkyWater Quantum Solutions brings together SkyWater’s semiconductor process development and manufacturing capabilities. The capabilities include superconducting and quantum photonics technologies, heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging.The unit will offer several processes for foundry customers, including SC250 and SP90. SC250 is a superconducting technology platform, focused on high-density cryogenic interconnect and control. SP90 is a low-loss silicon-nitride photonics technology platform for quantum applications.Qolab will serve as a lead customer on SkyWater’s new SC250 platform. Qolab is a U.S.-based hardware company developing utility-scale superconducting quantum computers. Qolab will use SC250 to advance its Quantum System-in-Package (QSiP) technology. The QSiP architecture integrates cryogenic wiring, low-pass filters, and amplifiers into a compact package.Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, IonQ, the parent company of SkyWater, rolled out the Superion 256, its sixth-generation quantum computing platform.IonQ’s system is based on trapped ion technology. “Trapped ions are a qubit implementation of quantum computing that harnesses charged atomic particles (ions) by confining and suspending them in vacuum with an ion trap chip, and manipulating them with lasers,” according to the company. “The primary advantages of trapped ions include long coherence times, all-to-all connectivity, and high gate fidelity.”The initial system incorporates 256-qubit quantum processing units (QPUs). IonQ has fabricated its 256-qubit QPUs at SkyWater. Powering the system is IonQ’s Electronic Qubit Control (EQC), which controls trapped-ion qubits with electronics integrated on the chip rather than with laser systems.Superion 256 is available to order now, with customer deliveries in 2027. In the first quarter of 2026, IonQ pre-sold its first Superion 256 system. Production-grade systems will also run and be offered on IonQ’s cloud.Subscribe1Share